


And We Drink To The Memory

by MeredithBrody



Series: The NX Programme [3]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Alcohol, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-04
Updated: 2014-04-04
Packaged: 2018-01-18 03:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1412509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The original NX team gather together the first chance they get to memorialise their fallen friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And We Drink To The Memory

**Author's Note:**

> As often happens, this started as a drabble for my Facebook challenge and grew. So. I hope you enjoy this.  
> The prompt:  
> “We sit here, we drink this beer out on this stoop, in violation of about 47 city ordinances.” Josh ‘The West Wing’

They'd been waiting to start the celebration all evening, but she had known Jonathan Archer would arrive eventually. She'd written to him saying they were doing this, and he'd replied saying he'd be there, and that they needed to talk. She didn't know whether he meant the group, or the two of them. But she'd see where this small gathering lead to. She'd already been joined by Sam and Rob and two six-packs when they finally saw Jon meandering up the street toward them. Rob jumped down from his spot and laughed. "And here he is, our hero."

"It's good to be home, despite the circumstances." Jon's face bore the marks of the pressure he was under, and Erika felt concern growing already. She hoped that maybe tonight would prove cathartic for him. He probably needed the break.

"Now you're here we thought the original team should get together and toast to AG." Erika said, lifting her bottle in his direction as he stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked up at them all.

Rob completed Sam's thought in the way those two had always done. It had confused Erika for a while, but she'd gotten used to it and now she couldn't really imagine the two of them not finishing one another's sentences. "On Erika's stoop, where we almost got arrested for drinking last time because we're breaking a couple dozen laws and regulations."

"Remember the time he drank the entire six-pack to himself and tried to break into the park, and one of Erika's neighbours threatened to call Starfleet security?" Jon asked, standing at the bottom of the stairs still, a little away from everyone. Erika wondered if he was concerned about being let back into the group after being away for so long. The truth was they'd never really broken up as friends.

"And AG just walked up to this guy and kissed him, full on the mouth. Never seen someone change their mind and walk away as quickly." Rob recounted, laughing so hard his words came out between wheezes. It was nice to hear them all laughing again. Joking about their old friend.

She burst out laughing again and looked at the door behind her, remembering that funny little man who really hadn't appreciated the history-making team that he had on his doorstep most nights. "He moved out you know, a few weeks later. I always thought AG had something to do with that."

"I'm sorry I missed the funeral." Jon muttered quietly as he finally climbed up the steps toward her, and she wondered why he felt the need to say that.

"You were still on a mission Jon, everyone understood." Rob was the first one to jump in and say what they all wanted to say. Nobody had expected him to be at the funeral, and AG would have found a way to haunt them all if he had have been.

"AG wouldn't have wanted you to stop your mission for him." She commented. She and AG had remained the closest after the end of the programme. Jon, Rob and Sam had all gotten their own ships, while AG had stayed with the test programme, and had regularly tried to recruit her. She'd even agreed to be his XO if he got the NX-02. He wanted to be out there as much as any of them.

"That's right." Sam agreed, passing Jon a beer as he settled on the stoop next to her. Jon had always had that spot. Even when he hadn't been her that spot had been left open. AG's spot on the bottom step was also left open, and it always would be now. She could almost see him sat there, a cocky smile on his face reminding them all of something he'd done better than them. Some would have found AG's gloating annoying or tedious. Erika had always found it endearing, it was a part of her best friend, and it was one of the many things she wished she could hear again.

"I really miss him." She mumbled, and her companions all fell silent for a moment. Rob gently nudged her with his elbow in one of his only ways of giving comfort, and she smiled at him as he did.

"Me too." Jon admitted a short while later, wrapping his arm around her shoulder as the four of them lifted their beer bottles to the sky in a silent toast to their fallen comrade. It may be a few weeks late, but them all being together was the best tribute they could pay to their long-time friend. It hadn't been long, and Erika missed AG intensely, tonight they would celebrate him and tomorrow the missions would start anew.


End file.
